A Malaysian court on Tuesday sentenced a 27- year-old ethnic Indian man to death for kidnapping and brutally murdering his nephew at
an oil palm plantation near here in 2009.
N Sukhvinder Singh from Medan, Indonesia, kidnapped his 21-year-old nephew Guramardev Singh from his house in Shah Alam in January 2009 and demanded a RM 100,000 (Rs 15 lakh) ransom from his parents.
Later, he killed Guramardev with a sickle at the beach town of Port Dickson.
A former tourist guide Rashid Abdullah (61) was also sentenced to death for abetting Sukhvinder in kidnapping the victim who was slashed 23 times with the sickle.
For the offence, Sukhvinder was jointly charged with Rashid. The offence carries the mandatory death sentence.
The judge said the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Sukhvinder and Rashid.
"The court found a lot of contradictions in testimonies by both the accused. Also, the court has decided not to accept claims by the defence that the victim had staged his own kidnapping to get ransom from his family," he said.
Ahmad Nasfy said the victim could not have been part of the plan or else he would not have suffered injuries to his wrists and ankles apart from other injuries that proved fatal.
"This was a premeditated crime and if the second accused (Rashid) had not been involved, it may have not resulted in the death of the victim," he said.
Guramardev's parents Gurdev Singh and Baljet Kaur who were present in court rejoiced after Judicial Commissioner Ahmad Nasfy Yasin delivered his verdict.
"Although our son will not come back, we are happy that justice has been served," the victim's mother said.